Man freed by mistake is charged in police attack

King County prosecutors have charged a Seattle man with assaulting police after he was mistakenly released from jail while being held for allegedly breaking into a Rainier Valley church during a blood-smeared vandalism rampage earlier this month.

Because of the error, the King County Prosecutor's Office said it has made changes to ensure that the mistake that allowed Daniel M. Saunders out of jail earlier this month will not be repeated.

"We've already established a new procedure in the office," Dan Donohoe, spokesman for King County Prosecutor Dan Satterberg, said in an e-mail Friday.

It was after Saunders was released in error that authorities say he committed the third-degree assault against police that resulted in Monday's charge.

Charging papers say two police officers were injured June 11 when Saunders fought with them — at one point arming himself with a screwdriver — during a melee outside a police evidence room in Georgetown. One officer suffered minor abrasions; a second officer missed work because of "back strain, bilateral knee injures, multiple contusions and abrasions he sustained in the altercation," charging papers say.

Saunders, 45, who remains at the King County Jail in lieu of $75,000 bail, was charged earlier this month with burglary and malicious mischief for the June 6 incident at the Unity Church of God.

Authorities say Saunders was naked when he hurled himself through the church's front window and cut himself extensively, before destroying a trophy case, ripping photos from the walls and smearing his blood on doors, walls and windows.

Police said Saunders has hepatitis C and left behind a bloody trail that forced authorities to declare the church site a biohazard and displaced the congregation during cleanup.

Saunders was being held on $25,000 bail at the King County Jail while prosecutors prepared charges against him for that incident.

As prosecutors rushed to file charges before a deadline, they failed to inform jail staff of the charges. When the jail received a release order signed by a judge June 10, they let Saunders go.

"It was our mistake," Donohoe said shortly after the incident. "We filed charges, but we didn't communicate that to either the court staff or the jail."

Authorities quickly recognized the error and issued a warrant to rearrest Saunders.

While out of custody the next day, police say Saunders showed up at the Seattle Police Department's evidence room, seeking to retrieve items confiscated during his June 6 arrest.

When police tried to rearrest him, Saunders fought back, attempting to take one officer's baton and another officer's Taser. He finally grabbed at a gun belt, a probable-cause affidavit states.

Then, while wrestling with police on the ground, Saunders "armed himself with a screwdriver to use on officers," before police gained control and handcuffed him.

In charging papers filed Monday, authorities said one of the officers who suffered abrasions during the fight "exposed his broken skin to Saunders' blood."

Kevin McConnell, Saunders' public defender, said Friday he only received the case in the past week and couldn't comment specifically on the charges.

"But some things are very clear to me," McConnell said. "This is a case where we have a mental-health issue. And from my perspective, the criminal-justice system and the mental-health system do not coordinate very well — and that's systemic."

Saunders' mistaken release also has led prosecutors to implement new procedures to ensure jailed suspects remain in custody when required, he said.

In the past, Donohoe said, only one staff member from the prosecutor's office checked the list of "rush filed cases" — which was done with Saunders' burglary case — then communicated those charges to the court.

"We now have a second staff member cross-checking the list and making sure that all of that information has been sent to our staff handling the court calendar at the jail," Donohoe said.

Lewis Kamb: 206-464-2341 or lkamb@seattletimes.com